Crafting

Can you recycle old wooden door knobs?

Finished upcycled door knobs
| mandyerush

Can you recycled old wooden door knobs?

Yes, you can and look at how they turned out!

Finished upcycled door knobs

How to Recycled Old Wooden Door Knobs

1. Collect your old Wooden Door Knobs

These old door knobs came from our kitchen cabinets.

Old Wooden door knobs to be recycled

Old Wooden Door Knobs

2. Paint the old wooden door knobs

Use acrylic paint and give the door knobs a few coats. Leave them for a day in between coats, to dry.

Old wooden knobs painted white

Attach the door knobs to a piece of wood and then coat them a few times with acrylic paint

3. Draw the images for the top of your door knobs

Using a blue sharpie on regular paper drawn some Folk Art style illustrations. I have about 18 separate illustrations of different animals in this funky Blue and White style.

  • Folk Art Blue and white illustration of Basking sharks
  • Blue and white horse illustrations folk art style

4. Scan images and open in your photo manipulation software

I use Adobe illustrator. I create circle and then use a clipping mask to insert the image into the circle.

  • Adobe illustrator fill shape
  • Using own designs for recycling wooden door knobs
  • Circles filled with folk art illustrations

5. Print out the Folk Art Illustrations

Print out the A4 sheet of your Folk Art illustrations on regular copier paper

Printed onto regular copier paper folk art illustration circles

6. Cut out the circles

I printed two sets of my Knob Toppers. One set I cut out using scissors. The second set of toppers I cut using my Scan and Cut. The Scan and Cut was much more accurate.

Cut with scissors versus cut with Scan and Cut machine

7. Use Modge Podge to attach paper to your wooden knob

Coat the top of your wooden knob with modge podge. Hold the screw attached to your knob and press down onto the printed paper. Then use some cling film and place this over the Folk Art topper. You can then use the cling film to mould the paper into the shape of the wooden knob without getting glue all over you or distorting the paper. Another key point is that the cling film won’t stick to the modge podge if you remove it after shaping the topper.

  • Modge Podge used to stick knob top
  • Use clingfirl to smooth down the topper and shape
  • Flattened with cling film

8. Allow Glue (Modge Podge) to dry and then recoat surface of the topper

I allowed my Knob Toppers to dry over night. Coat your knob topper again after 24 hours and then once again.

Coated with modge podge and drying

9. Finally, admire your upcycled Wooden Door Knobs

Now it is time to decide where to use your Folk Art Style Upcycled Wooden Door Knobs.

Aren’t they beautiful? Can you recycled old wooden door knobs? Yes you can!

Finished upcycled door knobs